"If Only I Can Make It Until Christmas" Pre-Trip Report - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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There are other changes as well.
Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:
We go on to the joy and through the tears
We go on to discover new frontiers
Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
Moving forward now as one
Moving on with a spirit born to run
Ever on with each rising sun.
To a new day, we go on.
It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
But eventually, we must move on and move forward. It is the right thing to do.
So we are retiring this newsletter, as we simply cannot keep up with it. Many thanks to Mouse Fan Travel who supported it all these years, to All Ears and MousePlanet who helped us with news, to our many article contributors, and -- most importantly -- to Sara Varney who edited our newsletter so wonderfully for years and years.
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So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
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"If Only I Can Make It Until Christmas" Pre-Trip Report
We weren’t supposed to cruise again in 2009. Especially me; I’ve already been twice this year. And we weren’t supposed to be out of town over Christmas. We were supposed to be camping at Fort Wilderness between Christmas and New Year’s, doing a “late night, heavy crowds, every EMH night we could, as many fireworks as possible” trip. Our kids, DS14 and DD13, were really looking forward to a more teen-oriented schedule (read: getting to sleep in!). I spent hours planning our camping trip, had all my ADRs set, day-by-day plans – we were READY!
I was a little worried about my energy level headed into it. In September, I picked up a few more hours at work, so I now work the full 40+ hours most folks do. While it was only 5 hours more per week, it makes a big difference! DH was having to adjust to doing more of the kid-related activities (mostly sports and medical appointments), they were all adjusting to Mom not doing all the cooking, and I was adjusting to not being the one who single-handedly orchestrated the family calendar!
Plus, in August, DS injured his ankle at soccer tryouts. What was originally diagnosed as a badly sprained ankle became, 4 weeks later, a broken ankle. Minimum of 2 ½ months on crutches.
But still – we were all excited about our Fort Wilderness trip! I have been looking forward to camping there at Christmas since we got our camper 4 years ago. It’ll be great, right? Right!
Then came the biggest curve ball.
DH was driving home on his Harley when a car pulled out in front of him, not 30 feet away. His choices were to lay the bike down or hit the car and fly over it. He chose right – he laid it down. And broke three ribs and his right collar bone. We are extremely thankful that it was not much worse! But it is bad. Ten-to-twelve weeks of bad. Week twelve? You guessed it. Christmas.
I’ve sworn to myself that I am not going to whine through this time of trial. I am not by nature a whiner. (My children learned very young not to whine. I have no patience for it; instead of getting what they wanted, they got reminded rather sharply to snap out of it!) It’s actually a testament of how difficult this all is for me that I have to remind myself not to whine.
So, I can’t share details about what all I have to do. Not because they’re private, but because I’ll end up whining!
It’s another testament of how difficult this all is that, four days after DH’s accident, I told him I wanted to cancel Fort Wilderness. Camping is great, camping is wonderful, I love being able to bring my “second home” on vacation. . .but camping is also work. Work that I usually love. But there is one thing I definitely don’t need any more of in my life right now – WORK! And a vacation that involves work stops being a vacation.
DH didn’t want to cancel. He wanted to believe that he would be better enough to shoulder his part of the work (pun intended). He knew I was serious when I told him I was at least equally worried about myself as about him. I think, by the time we reach the end of his 10-12 week recovery, I am going to be exhausted.
So, we decide to cancel. Does it get any sadder than this?
Thanks, everybody! Especially for the pixie dust!! While things are improving, we've still got a long row to hoe. But things do get better!
Medically speaking, we should know some details about DH after his doc appt tomorrow. Hopefully, his collar bone is healing fairly well. Prayers that he doesn't need surgery!!!
A week or so ago, DS had a follow up - which indicataed that his ankle is not healing in "normal" timelines. So they've added ultrasound therapy and PT. He's on crutches for at least another three weeks. We're all doing fairly well with it, but nobody is happy about it.
Even with all that, I'm starting to feel more positive. And the next installment will begin to explain why. . .
So no Fort Wilderness. But I’d still really like to vacation. Really want to vacation. Really need a break.
Now what? I start surfing favorite travel-related websites. We had actually considered moving from the campground to a resort at WDW, but I was wary of the crowds. With DH and DS still recuperating from their broken bones, I wasn’t confident about their abilities to negotiate the crowds and maintain energy levels.
Then, of course, I headed to DCL’s website. And, guess what? They’ve got an INCREDIBLE deal on cat12s for the Dec. 19-26 cruise, Eastern Caribbean! As in, just at $4K for two staterooms!
Now this is a bit ironic. You see, when we took our 4-nighter in January, we decided that we definitely wanted to cruise DCL again. But not the Bahamas – we wanted a 7-nighter. Preferably the Eastern. With our schedules, it pretty much needed to be summer. So that’s what we’ll aim for! Only, no Caribbean cruises in Summer 2010. So we book a dummy cruise while on board, planning to move it to Summer 2011 when the schedule comes out. Yea, you know where this is headed. No Caribbean cruises then, either. Prior to any of the accident mess, we had actually given up on a DCL cruise for several years. I just hadn’t cancelled our 2010 ressies yet.
“Um, honey, I know you said you didn’t want to be cruising over Christmas. But look at this deal! And we get off the boat early on the 26th – we can drive right to your mother’s and spend the next couple days there! It will actually be easier to see everyone then than on Christmas Day.”
What a great husband I have. He said yes. He heard how overwhelmed I am, how tired I think I’m going to be, how much I’m going to need a break. . .and he said yes. I really do love him!
So we did it. We moved the Summer 2010 ressies to Christmas 09. Had to pay in full as we were already inside the 75-day window. Yea, that means I missed Palo brunch pre-booking. But I don’t care – I’m going on the Magic!!!
Sounds Magical ! I want to do Eastern next so I'll be interested to read all about it in your TR . Try for Palo reservation as soon as you board , that's how I scored my brunch ressie. Have fun
Well, now as we’re less than two weeks to embarkation, I guess I should finish the pre-trip report. It’s been a pretty eventful two months.
DS is STILL on crutches. Yes, we’ve started month 5 with him not supposed to be walking. You can guess how well it’s gone. He has an appointment Thursday morning; we’re praying that the doc says the break has healed enough for him to ditch the crutches! If that happens, he will still be in a boot. But he should be able to take it off to swim, as long as he doesn’t get too crazy. He will be so thankful to be off the crutches, he didn’t even complain when the doc said he’d still have to wear the boot for a while!
DH is recuperating a bit more “on schedule.” He is still quite sore at times, with occasional pain. But he is weaning himself off painkillers, so that’s good. And we are both certain that we made the right decision to cancel the camping trip; he just wouldn’t be ready for that much physical effort.
One of our highlights – we got a call from DCL asking if we wanted to upgrade from our cat 12s. For only $150/stateroom, we were moved to adjacent cat 9s on deck 2 – woo hoo! One of them is reported to be a bit longer than the usual staterooms (due to the curve of the bow). So, being the Christmas-aholic I am, we’ve gambled and bought a small Christmas tree to bring and set up in our room! I am so excited!!
I also have started packing. It’s finally winter here in Eastern NC, so it was safe to pack the shorts and t-shirts. It’s starting to feel real, that we’re going!
We’ve planned a few excursions. The boys are going fishing on St. Martin while DD and I do a semi-sub and check out the French side of the island. I hope we’ll get some beach time, too. We’re also going to do the St. John tour, the one that is mostly by vehicle. We wanted to hike, but thought it might be too much. And I’ve got a Christmas morning surprise for the family – I’ve booked two tandem jet ski excursions! All in all, it’s looking like a wonderful cruise. And how could it not be? It’s Disney!!! And for Christmas, no less!!!
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I spent hours planning our camping trip, had all my ADRs set, day-by-day plans – we were READY!
Camping is great, camping is wonderful, I love being able to bring my “second home” on vacation. . .but camping is also work. Work that I usually love. But there is one thing I definitely don’t need any more of in my life right now – WORK! And a vacation that involves work stops being a vacation.
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